Rebecca Cardigan, PhD elected President, effective Oct 2023

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
21 September 2023

Lebanon, NH -The Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative has announced that Rebecca Cardigan, PhD has been elected as its new President, effective October 11, 2023.

Rebecca Cardigan is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Haematology, currently National Head of Components Development for NHS Blood & Transplant, and Affiliated Associate Professor, Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge. She is responsible for the laboratory and clinical evaluation of major changes to how blood for transfusion is produced, stored and monitored in England. Rebecca has led numerous research projects that have subsequently been translated into routine practice in the NHS and has made significant contributions to setting national guidelines/policy as Chair of the UK Standing Advisory Committee on Blood Components for 7 years and Deputy Director for the UK Joint Professional Advisory Committee for 6 years. She received the British Blood Transfusion Society Race & Sanger Award in 2007 for an outstanding contribution to transfusion medicine and Kenneth Goldsmith Award in 2019 for contribution to research in the field of transfusion. She is a Consultant Civilian Advisor to the UK Ministry of Defence and a member of the Safety Advisory Board for Hema-Quebec. She has published over 100 papers in the area of haemostasis and transfusion and was section Editor for Vox Sanquinis, the official journal of the International Society for Blood Transfusion for 8 years.

“I am immensely grateful and indebted to Rebecca for stepping in as President of BEST to complete the four-year term (2022-2026) after Dr. Dana Devine resigned for personal reasons,” said Dr. Ziggy Szczepiorkowski, President (Interim) and Treasurer of the BEST Collaborative. “Rebecca has been a long-term fantastic scientific contributor to the BEST Collaborative, and is currently a co-leader of the BEST Conventional Components and a member of our Board of Directors. Her research achievements have been stellar, and I am looking forward to her leading BEST in the coming years as we challenge ourselves with the continuous growth of manufacturer and blood operator membership and scientific output in the areas of interest to our entire membership.“

“It’s a great honour for me to become President of BEST.” stated Dr. Cardigan. “As a scientific member of BEST for over a decade, and team leader for conventional components since 2018, I am a long-term supporter of its work, and a firm advocate of its collaborative model. BEST is a unique organisation within our particular community, bringing together industry, blood operators, and academics like no other. I look forward to building on the strong foundations that the previous Presidents have established in ensuring BEST is an impactful organisation."

Dr. Cardigan will serve a three-year term.

About the BEST Collaborative: The Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative is an international research organization whose objective is to improve the safety of transfusion and cell therapy and related services through standardization of analytic techniques, development of new procedures, and execution of clinical trials in hemotherapy and cell therapy. More than 160 scientific publications have resulted from the Collaborative's work.

###

CONTACTS:
Ziggy Szczepiorkowski, MD, PhD; President (Interim) of the BEST Collaborative, in Lebanon, NH: +1 603 650 7171
Eileen Selogie, MT(ASCP)SBB; Executive Director of the BEST Collaborative: +1 310 801 0914